I’ve never been shy about the fans I’m huge fans of. Especially those who saw me on my previous blog know that I’ve shamelessly plugged Rabbitpoets and The Null Set as great blogs, and will do so until I retire. Further prodding will reveal that I’m also a fan of Psgels Star Crossed Blog. These guys are good, amazingly good. I will never be this good. Not putting myself down, it’s the honest truth, and I will continue to give them credit when due.

However, I developed a total crush on Scamp’s blog, The Cart Driver, enough that I want to include it in my list of top blogs. Not a romantic crush on Scamp, but total respect and awe in his ability as a blogger.

He’s just that good.

I actually didn’t meet Scamp until right after I was kicked out of Borderline Hikkomori, and he was one of the people who was supportive of me, although maybe it’s because I was a pretty blogger down on her luck. After that, I started following him at his first blog and then when he moved to The Cart Driver.

Scamp has the formula to what it takes to be a good blogger down. He’s passionate about anime, and it comes out very strongly is his post. Every post feels well thought out and put together, it flows very well, and usually, there’s a good deal of research backing up his post. The time and energy he must spend on his posts are inconceivable to me. Scamp doesn’t really summarize what happens in the episodes so much as focus on his thoughts, but they’re flow together very well, not disjointed various thoughts that my style produces.

Not only that, but Scamp interacts with fellow bloggers and commenters. Usually when blogs become a big name, they lose this, but he hasn’t. He replies to most of his comments, and also quite talkative on twitter. To me, getting to me involved in the community is the second best thing after blogging. It isn’t about hits or rankings, though those make you feel good, it’s about making friends and finding a way into a community of somewhat like-minded people. The people who blog are fascinating people, and getting to know the mind behind the machine is exciting. Commenting feels a lot more worthwhile if the commenter responds, hence why I never post on Star Crossed Blog.

He’s creative as well. Beyond episodic posts, Scamp writes reflections on various topics, including one of my current favorite blog features, the on-going “No Anime is Dropped Forever”.

Now to my final reason on what I like about Scamp’s blog. He has a strong personality, and while he’s typically a nice guy, he’s not afraid to state his opinion and develop his own identity. While I don’t always agree with him (K-On is a good anime, dang it!) someone who’s not afraid to do so always wins respect in my book. I prefer subjective over objective 10 times over, and would rather read a post full of personal thoughts and opinions rather then a mechanical analysis of the good points and bad. On top of that, Scamp’s pretty special in that he’s a guy who doesn’t like moe or yuri. That alone makes him stand out.

This is where I stop, as Scamp has a big enough ego already due to his success, but it’s rare that you see a blogger get the credit he deserves. While it’s not me, it’s heartwarming to see a fellow blogger’s hard work paying off. Scamp is currently ranked 8 on animeblips, and up for the Irish Blog Awards in Best Youth Blog. Black and Blue Socks is definitely cheering him on and wishing the best in the latter.

And I’m out. To those reading, maybe I’ll wax about your blog someday. But for today, check out Scamp’s, kthxbai.

10 responses to “I have a crush on The Cart Driver”

Friends, talking, community—these are the demons you must slay in order to become a great blogger. Blogging is about blogging. When a great post idea comes to mind, you can’t allow yourself to miss the opportunity because you’re twitter tweeting or chatroom gossiping.

Trying to think of something to say without appearing to have a massive ego….

Baka-Raptor has a very good point. Most of the long-running blogs have a certain distance between writer and reader. Now I’m hardly as big as that dinosaur (for one, he’s rated one place ahead of me on Animeblips) so it’s not like it’s a problem, but blogging is about blogging. Getting caught up on other sites is a sure-fire way to quick death.

Wow, Irish Blog awards. I wonder why they didn’t put him in pop culture, arts and culture, or even specialist. Interestingly, there’s also a blog named: scamp, lol. Congrats to uh, the real Scamp, on the nomination!